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Paws for a Cause From Milk-Bone

One of the most popular tactics in consumer advertising these days is what is known as cause marketing or cause-related marketing, whereby companies seek to do well by doing good. So widespread has cause marketing become that it is being expanded from products for people to products for their pets.

For instance, for some time the Pedigree brand of dog food sold by Mars has been promoting its support of pet adoption. Now, Del Monte Foods is making its donations to an organization named Canine Assistants the centerpiece of a campaign for its Milk-Bone line of dog treats.

Underlining that focus is the theme of the campaign: “It’s good to give.” The double meaning is meant to convey that just as Milk-Bone is good to give your dog, you can also get a warm and fuzzy feeling if you give to good causes — or support brands that do.

The campaign, created by the Irvine, Calif., office of Draft FCB, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, has a budget estimated at more than $10 million. The ads began appearing on Sept. 21 and are scheduled to run through the spring.

Milk-Bone is “a bit of a sleeping giant,” says Christie Fleming, vice president for marketing at Del Monte in San Francisco, so dominant in its category that dog owners “talk about ‘a Milk-Bone’ regardless of the brand.”

“As we thought about the next generation of growth, reminding consumers why they should continue to purchase Milk-Bone is critically important to us,” she adds, because they have not been buying the brand “as frequently as we would like them to.”

Out of those discussions came the concept of playing up the “emotional” aspects of the brand along with the “functional” aspects, Ms. Fleming says, an idea that is encapsulated in this language on the home page of milk-bone.com: “When you give the wholesome goodness of Milk-Bone dog snacks, you’re giving more than cleaner teeth and fresher breath. That’s because every time you buy Milk-Bone dog snacks, a portion of the proceeds goes to help the Canine Assistants organization.”

Canine Assistants, based in Alpharetta, Ga., has trained and provided service dogs since 1991 to adults and children with disabilities and special needs. Ms. Fleming says that in the 12 years the brand has been supporting the organization, more than $10 million has been donated, along with supplies of Milk-Bone. The brand also sponsors events at which the service dogs are presented to their new owners.

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“Service dogs and what they can do for their recipients is a very compelling story,” Ms. Fleming says, and the hope is that as consumers think about the partnership, they will become aware of Canine Assistants as well as “think about Milk-Bone in a new light.”

“Cause marketing, we believe, will work well,” she adds, “because of the emotional connection pet parents have with their pets.” The term “pet parents” is used by marketers of pet foods and products to denote the devoted pet owners who treat their pets like children.

The television commercial features Jake Jeter, an actual recipient of a dog from Canine Assistants. He is a law student who was injured in an accident that left him in a wheelchair.

The spot starts with two scenes of consumers who do not use service dogs; one is romping on the grass with his dog and the other is with her dog inside the house. As those scenes appear, a voice says, echoing the language on the home page of the Web site: “Every time you give Milk-Bone, you give more than just 12 vitamins and minerals. You give more than cleaner teeth and fresher breath.”

At that point, Mr. Jeter is shown rolling down a hallway in his wheelchair with his dog. They leave a building after the dog opens a door with its paws.

The voice continues: “’cause every time you give Milk-Bone, you help people like me receive dogs like Carly from the Canine Assistants organization. For 12 years and counting, a portion of every Milk-Bone purchase helps make that happen.”

After Mr. Jeter gives the dog a Milk-Bone, they join several people outdoors on the grass, under a tree. “So give the treat that gives back,” the voice concludes, whistling for a moment as if calling to the dog. “It’s good to give. Milk-Bone.” An ad in a Sunday newspaper coupon insert shows a young girl seated in a wheelchair, hugging a dog standing on its hind legs. “Every time you give Milk-Bone,” the text reads, “you help support the Canine Assistants organization, providing service dogs to those in need.”

Focusing the campaign on cause marketing was not the first concept considered by Draft FCB, says Sean Hardwick, senior vice president and group management director at the Irvine office.

“We went through a number of different creative approaches before landing on this one,” Mr. Hardwick says, which he summarizes as “doing something good for your dog and something good for the planet, if you will.”

“In dog we trust,” he added.

Cause marketing is another way to woo consumers in tough times, Mr. Hardwick says, because “my personal view is that there’s only so much value advertising people will accept in this climate.”

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“There’s tons of ‘save this’ and ‘dollars off’ that,” he adds. “I think people will welcome a respite from it.”

(Well, people who have the money to buy brand-name dog snacks, anyway.)

As altruistic as cause-marketing campaigns may be, Mr. Hardwick says, “you’ve got to be pretty clear why you want people to buy the product.”

There is also a link on the Milk-Bone Web site to the Web site of Canine Assistants . And those who want to donate directly to Canine Assistants, rather than indirectly by buying Milk-Bone, may do so through another link on the Milk-Bone Web site, which takes them to the donation section of canineassistants.org.

Other agencies working on the campaign, in addition to Draft FCB, are Starcom Worldwide in Chicago, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group division of the Publicis Groupe, for media buying, and Catalyst:SF in San Francisco, the digital agency of record for Del Monte, for executing the interactive part of the campaign.

The Milk-Bone fan page on facebook.com, under the label It’s Good to Give Milk-Bone, is tracking the progress of a service dog in training named Noble, a lab and golden mix puppy. Photographs and brief text reports have been posted since Sept. 10 and so far, more than 660 people on Facebook have become fans.

Users of Twitter can follow the brand through #Milkbone. The Milk-Bone Web site offers examples of some tweets.

Someone named Axongap writes: “A wiener dog approached me today and asked for a ride because he ran out of gas. Was I wrong in giving him a Milk-Bone instead?”